


You Are Awfully Brave

by JjdoggieS



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Cute, F/M, Fluff, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Number Five | The Boy is an Idiot, Pining, Pining Idiots, Pre-Canon, Some references to other shows/movies, Teen Angst, Teenagers, Vanya Hargreeves is an Idiot, bc i watched it recently, mostly just one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:49:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28881990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JjdoggieS/pseuds/JjdoggieS
Summary: The Umbrella Academy, world-renowned, famous teenage superheroes. To be known, famous superheroes implicated that they had no weaknesses. At least, none that would be visible tomostpeople.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 1
Kudos: 39





	You Are Awfully Brave

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunchime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunchime/gifts), [Blackat14](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackat14/gifts), [ellaphunt19](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellaphunt19/gifts), [fiveyaaas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/gifts).



The Umbrella Academy, world-renowned, famous teenage superheroes. To be known, famous superheroes implicated that they had no weaknesses. At least, none that would be visible to _most_ people. But Number Seven, also known as Vanya Hargreeves, had a special _advantage_ over other people. Vanya Hargreeves was fortunate, or unfortunate in essentially every eye from within the household, to live _with_ The Umbrella Academy; and therefore, was privy to seeing most of the weaknesses that were kept from the public eye.

And while their father, Sir Reginald, constantly picked apart everything her siblings did, as well as berate basically every breath she took. There was, however, one more fortunate Hargreeve that could typically escape a good proportion of Reginald’s typical wrath.

Number Five ‘Five’ Hargreeves.

Number Five, more often referred to as simply Five, was Vanya’s best friend, and only friend, for as long as she could remember. And in recent years, they’d started becoming something _more_ than just best friends. But, regardless of the frivolous talking and clarifications as to what they were to each other exactly, what _was_ important was that their entire relationship, friends or anything more, had been strictly forbidden by their father for, again, as long as Vanya could remember. Their father, mother, and Pogo had worked to keep Vanya fairly isolated from her siblings, yet forced to live in the epicenter of their superhero lives. It was a rather odd, annoying, and confusing situation, to say the least. But what did she know? They were only thirteen, after all.

Now, Five often escaped their father’s wrath, despite his forbidden friendship with Vanya for years, was that Reginald had difficulty finding faults of Five’s to use against him. He had one of the most controlled powers of their siblings. He was by far the smartest between them all. While he typically had a bit of an ego issue, for the most part, he’d had it under control. And, what frustrated their father the most was that, he wouldn’t ever negate his relationship with Vanya.

To the public, he was infallible.

To their family, he was untouchable.

To their father, he was good enough, valuable.

And to Vanya, he was hers. And she was his.

She was her. He was him. They were them.

It wasn’t perfect, far from it; but, it was as good as it could get.

Because of their closeness, the closeness that teetered on the edge between friends and _something_ more, Vanya’s every weakness, even the ones she’d learned to conceal and bury years ago, were exposed to him. And just as hers were exposed to him, his were exposed to her.

They were small things. Little, insignificant things. Things so unimportant that even someone as methodical as Reginald Hargreeves was bound to miss.

But Vanya, someone who’d spent their entire life as something insignificant and ignored by all but one, knew exactly where those kinds of things liked to hide. To be unseen. To protect themselves. She knew how to find them. How to draw them out. And, how to fix them.

While Vanya could easily fix Five’s finite faults, the little things that were easy to fix once you addressed them, like a barely shaking hand that hovered over the tables of weapons that were used in their training. Five had far more difficulty trying to help Vanya with hers. To fix another’s practically non-existent self-esteem after years of nothing but beratement from not only but their father, but their siblings, mom, and Pogo as well, albeit some of which wasn’t intentional, didn’t necessarily create a stable, or any, foundation to build off of.

It was after all, easier to prune an overgrown tree than fix one with a weakened core and filled with rot.

For days, weeks, months, and years on end, they would share little sentiments. Small gestures and meaningful words shared between passings in the hallways and stolen moments throughout the day. Slowly building each other up, entwining their personalities, finding solstice in each other, creating an unhealthy dependence on each other.

After years of building up their entire relationship, it only took two small events, one after another, to ruin everything.

The first of which occurred in their favorite spot in the library, a mere two hours before the second event. Five had been explaining, again, about how he was going to master time travel before they turned eighteen. He was determined to master it in less than five years. And with his persistence, it was feasible for him to do so.

“Is there anything you can’t do?” Vanya asked him, a bit of a shy laugh acting as bookends on the off-handed question she asked.

She hadn’t expected him to give her an answer. Especially one that wasn’t his typical ‘I can do anything’ answer. What she _had_ gotten from him was “Gather up my wits and ask you out.” being quickly muttered out as he avoided looking

And Vanya, as most people would, could only think to reply with "What?"

"What?" Five repeated. In an instant, Five's demeanor shifted from the typically kind boy he was towards her to the cold, uncaring asshole he was towards, well, everyone else. "Nothing," he hissed at her, pushing himself from the alcove they'd been sitting on, gathering up his schoolwork, "just forget about it."

"I don't want to forget about it Five." Vanya quickly said. When she got no reply, and Five showed no signs of staying with her, she added, "Please Five. Talk to me."

At her plea, Five momentarily paused, his eyes sparing a glance in her direction. Rather than rejoin her in the alcove as Vanya had hoped that he would, instead, he muttered "I'm sorry." before disappearing in a flash of blue. Leaving her alone in the vast library.

That had all occurred early in the day, just after breakfast when they had silent studying time for school. At lunch and during classes, while they sat next to each other, neither spoke a word or spared a glance at the other. His afternoon was consumed by training with their father and siblings, while hers was spent practicing her violin, pouring the emotion bubbling beneath the surface into it. Taking an extra pill afterward, per mom's 'suggestion' that she do so.

By the time it rolled into their time for dinner, the only meal they had _with_ their father present, Five and Vanya hadn't spoken or looked at each other for a majority of the day. In need of her only friend in the house, Vanya had been trying to get Five's attention, which had been set on their father since they'd returned from training, doing so _without_ drawing the attention of their siblings or their father. 

She'd been, thoroughly unsuccessful. 

Five's attention, whether he hadn't noticed her or was simply ignoring her, had remained on their father. She watched in what felt like slow motion as Five's hand grabbed his dinner knife before stabbing it into the table. He was demanding to be granted permission to start working on his time travel abilities. Their father, not sparing him a glance like Five had towards Vanya, telling him he wasn't ready for it. After being told to forget about his _delusions_ of time travel, Five spared a single glace towards her. 

He was asking for _her_ permission.

She didn't want him to leave. And she shook her head.

He stormed out of the house in a huff and didn't return. Not to her.

They were forgotten. He was gone. She was alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Fic update survey if you're interested: https://forms.gle/Zi7mhGkUczXaMChS8


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